Big Softie
by Devilish Kurumi
Summary: It's way too hot and Eiko is not in the mood to walk. So, who does she turn to? [You should guess it easy enough.]
1. Walking

A/N: Just a short little thing that I felt like I should write. Warning: I watched _a lot_ of anime in subtitles before I wrote this, so there's some gratuitous Japanese. Nothing _too_ bad, and it's only... Well, you'll see.

I don't hate Eiko, by the way. I just don't particularly care for her as much as everyone else. This is more of a setup for any future Amarant/Eiko friend relations – keep in mind, I say **friends** because Eiko's like twenty years younger than Amarant. The poor girl, she has no chance with him. What a shame.

Takes place just after Amarant joins the group. Keep in mind my timeline is a little fuzzy.

* * *

The sun was _way_ too bright and the sand of the desert was just _way_ too hot. Luckily for Amarant, his boots are thick dragon-hide and probably could withstand lava, if he really felt like testing them. 

Unfortunately, because of the heat, there's an excessive amount of whining.

"Zi_dane_!"

Especially from one particular little girl.

"I'm _tired_!"

"We all are, Eiko," the blonde at the front of their group calls back to the little girl, who's lagging behind even Amarant, who usually tries to take up the back. "But we have to keep moving – we'll never reach Conde Petie at this rate!"

"But Zi_dane_!"

"Quit your whining," Amarant growls, effectively silencing the girl.

At least, for a few minutes.

Then, the girl begins to sigh every few moments, managing to make even Vivi look back in something resembling a vague annoyance. Very vague, but still.

"If you don't shut _up_," the bounty hunter begins, turning to glare at the girl, only to find her suddenly matching his rather large pace.

"I'm _tired_!" she exclaims again, "Can't we stop for a _little_ while?"

"No," Amarant snaps, "Shut up."

She falls behind again and sighs loudly.

A few minutes later, another few sighs, and finally Freya speaks up. "Eiko, _please-_"

"Okay, okay!" Zidane finally says, "Eiko, we'll take a break _soon_, okay? One more hour, and then we can rest."

"I can't keep _going_ for an _hour_!" Then she exclaims, "Wait! I know!"

She grabs Amarant's wristband, forcing him to slow down. "Carry me!"

The redhead closes his eyes for a brief moment, and then looks down at the girl. "..._What_?"

"You heard me! _Carry_ me!"

"_No_!"

"Aw, come on, Ama-chan!"

Amarant chokes suddenly, "_What_ did you call me!"

Zidane laughs, "Yeah, _Ama-chan_, carry her so we can keep going!"

"I'm not your damned babysitter, Tribal!"

Zidane simply chuckles and waves a hand. The group keeps going but Amarant's forced to a near stop by the girl clinging to him.

Amarant doesn't _like_ kids. They're obnoxious and loud, and whine too much. He hates them and wishes they would just not _exist_ until they were his age and preferably with either a drink or a fight for him.

Eiko doesn't understand this, and therefore he can't shake her off as easily as the kids in Treno.

"Come _on_!"

Amarant flashes his claws and glares at the girl, not getting much of a reaction out of her at all. "_Look_, I'm a _bounty hunter_. I _kill_ people. I don't _carry_ whiny little _brats_ just because their feet hurt."

"B-b-but-!"

"Quit it!" Amarant snaps, not realizing the very precarious edge that he's standing on. Moments later, he glances over at Eiko and notices that her lower lip is trembling. "_No,_ don't you start-"

Eiko lets out a wail as loud as all hell and begins to cry violently, stopping dead in her tracks and covering her face with her hands.

The rest of the party, already a good ten feet ahead, stop and look back. Zidane has a very large grin on his face, and though Dagger looks mildly distressed, she has her hand over her mouth and Amarant _knows_ she's probably smiling.

"Oh, for the..." The bounty hunter – the _Flaming Amarant_ – puts a hand over his eyes and sighs. "Fine," he concedes, "_Fine_, I'll carry you – just quit your _crying_!"

Eiko looks up, blinking tears away. "_You mean it?_"

"...Yeah, whatever," he mumbles.

The girl grins and instantly the tears are gone and Amarant realizes he's met probably the only person who he will never defeat – a little girl who knows how to cry on-fucking-cue.

She leaps onto his back and he grunts, grabbing her legs and letting her grab his shoulders. Once he knows she's stopped squirming around, he starts moving again.

"I can see _everything_!" she exclaims.

"Don't shout in my ear," he growls, and she laughs.

The group keeps going and Amarant refuses to pay attention to their secretive little glances back.

If Lani could see him now...

* * *

Sad thing is, this is the most In Character Amarant I've written lately, if ever. 


	2. Sleeping

A/N: I wasn't going to write more to this, but I saw a doujinshi scan that made me HAVE TO do this. I actually have another few bits written to. Amarant is such a softie.

* * *

Night is falling and they are still _way_ too far from Conde Petie for Amarant's liking. Eiko had since gotten off of his back – figuratively _and_ literally, with much damage to the bounty hunter's image – and is now at the rear of the party again, yawning hugely and looking absolutely exhausted. Not like the rest of them _aren't_ tired themselves, but she's the one who's been making it obvious. 

Finally, Zidane waves a hand. "Alright, I guess we should set up camp. We're not going to make it through the pass tonight."

Eiko makes a content noise and they find a place near some huge boulders. Amarant rolls his eyes and immediately picks a spot far away from wherever the group is planning on setting up tents and being _sociable_. Just because he's decided to follow them and see what makes Zidane tick doesn't mean he has to be _nice_ about it.

Steiner, Vivi, and Zidane set down their packs and immediately go through them to find the tent. Amarant's always been amazed at how compact people have made tents – you could fit four or five in one satchel if you had that many.

"What!"

He raises his head again to look at the three, and it looks like the rust-bucket's going to pop a vein. "How could you have-"

"Steiner," Dagger sighs, sitting against the rock not too far from Amarant, who shifts into a meditative position. He figures, if he looks like he's intent on actually mediating or _thinking_, they'll leave him alone.

The knight clanks and Amarant feels his eye twitch. He's already gotten on the bounty hunter's nerves.

"We don't have a tent," Zidane shrugs, "No big deal. It's clear out, anyways. Help me find some wood for the fire, Rusty."

The two end up gathering more wood than anyone would possibly need for just one night's fire, and Amarant growls lowly as they set up the fire a little too close to him. Without the tents, the group will be spread out more. He won't be _solitary_, damn it.

They end up cooking random meat from Madain Sari – one smart thing about the brat is that she knows what she's doing when it comes to traveling – and eventually Dagger and Freya both end up falling asleep against the rock.

Amarant rolls his eyes and watches the four awake people sit around the fire. Zidane yawns and stretches. "Well, I guess we better decide who's going to take first watch."

Steiner doesn't immediately volunteer and Zidane looks confused by this, but Amarant doesn't even know the damned guy so he can't see why that's strange. "Amarant," the monkey finally calls, "Would you wake me up in a few hours?"

"You're giving _me_ first shift."

"Basically, yeah. Is that okay?"

"...Whatever."

The two kids are sitting on the side of the fire closes to Amarant, and Zidane says, "Goodnight," before going to lay down kind of near Dagger but not close enough to earn any reproach from Steiner. The knight, too, eventually retires to sleep between the monkey and the princess, drawing a smirk from Amarant. The knight isn't _stupid_, then.

Vivi and Eiko are talking and then Eiko stands up, looking suddenly determined. Vivi looks scared and confused and so Amarant decides he should be careful – rightly so, because Eiko's now tromping over to him.

"What, brat?"

She leans down to try and look him in the eye – good luck, kid, that's why he wears his hair in his face – and gives him an obnoxiously young, big and toothy grin.

"Thank you, Ama-chan!"

His first response is, understandably, "You call me that one more time and I'm going to kill you," but then he thinks for a moment and asks, cautiously, "...For what?"

"For _carrying_ me!" she exclaims. "Vivi said I should apologize, but why apologize when I didn't do any harm to anything?"

"You did harm to my reputation," the bounty hunter grumbles and leans back, closing his eyes. "Go to sleep, brat."

"But I'm not _tired_!" She frowns, kicking dirt up, "And the ground is all _hard_..."

"Go sleep next to Zidane, then," the hunter sighs, smirking when she makes a strangled squeaking noise.

"I don't _want_ to!" she says.

"U-Um..."

Amarant opens an eye to find Vivi standing next to Eiko, only looking at her and trying to avoid his gaze. He frowns slightly – the kid is more powerful than he had expected and this worries him slightly. Kids shouldn't have power.

"E-Eiko, we should go leave him alone," the little mage says in a voice much quieter than Amarant's used to hearing from kids. Then again, he wonders if Vivi's even _really_ a kid...

"Why?" Eiko asks, crossing her arms, "It's not like he can just go to sleep any time soon. He's got first watch."

"Do you even know what I'm watching out for?" Amarant asks, raising an eyebrow.

"...Well, no. Kuja?"

He snorts. "Monsters that will eat you, brat. Do you want to distract me so a monster comes up and _eats_ you?"

"They wouldn't _dare_," Eiko insists. "I have _Vivi_ here with me."

The little mage blushes and looks away.

"He'd kick their asses!"

"Eiko," Zidane groans from his side of the rock, "Please go to sleep. You were just saying how tired you were...

The girl sighs and looks around for a place to lay down.

"It's all _hard_," she whines quietly.

"Sleep on _Amarant_ then," Zidane exclaims through a yawn, "We're all _tired_."

"Damn it, Tribal, don't give her any damned-"

Amarant's cut off mid-tirade as the girl nods and instantly flops into his lap as if he's a glorified recliner.

"_Brat_," he snarls, glaring at her viciously.

The girl looks at him, blinks, and then turns to Vivi. "Come on, Vivi! He's _comfortable_."

Amarant doesn't know exactly what he's feeling, but it definitely makes him want to kill something. He supposes that fact's written across his face, because the mage steps back and stares in wide-eyed fear.

"Ama-chan, stop _scaring_ him," Eiko grumbles, punching him in the chest and leaving no mark whatsoever.

Amarant winces and then sighs. She's got her lower lip trembling again and he _hates_ kids who cry, so he shakes his head and leans back against the rock, closing his eyes.

"...Whatever..."

A few hours later, Zidane wakes up on his own, sitting up and stretching his arms, before standing and making his way to the near-dead fire. "Amarant?" he whispers into the dark.

"...What?"

"I just wanted to see if you were awake. Did Eiko go to sleep?"

"I'm going to murder you."

Zidane looks beyond the fire and sees Amarant with Eiko in his lap, Vivi sleeping against him. The blonde smiles and Amarant's surprised that there's no mockery in his expression. "You can go to sleep now," the monkey says to the bounty hunter, "I'll take my shift."

Amarant doesn't respond, instead looking down at the kid in his lap. She's a lot less annoying when she isn't _talking_.

If Lani could see him now...


End file.
